How do I enable auto-login in LightDM?

Question

I want user foo to auto-login using LightDM (which has been used by Ubuntu since version 11.10). How would I do that?

Answer 1

You can do this without editing configuration files: go to System Settings > User accounts, click "Unlock" and enter your password, then click the button next to "Automatic login":

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Answer 2

An alternative to Alin's answer is to create a file /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf and add the following content:

[SeatDefaults]
autologin-user=<YOUR USER>
autologin-user-timeout=0
user-session=ubuntu
greeter-session=unity-greeter

Next time you start, auto-login should work like expected.

Answer 3

You can easily do this with lightdm-set-defaults if you'd rather not edit lightdm.conf manually:

sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults --autologin username

It will not set the autologin timeout, but the default for that is 0 in the code anyway, so you don't need to set it.

Answer 4

Search for "User Accounts" application. Select the account you want to autologin Toggle the Automatic Login switch to On

That should do the work.

Answer 5

I just discovered that, I need to have ubuntu-desktop to be install before lightdm could function. This solved my issue when trying to get lightdm to actually login in without going in loop.

The reason for the system to go in loop may be because lightdm needs the ubuntu desktop before it may work.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop